**************************************************************

The material posted here was provided to the Division for the 

Advancement of Women by the Government in response to a note 

verbale. It is being made available in electronic format in

the form received. In cases where it was not possible at this 

time to reproduce charts and tables supplied, these can be 

obtained by contacting the Division for the Advancement of 

Women directly.

**************************************************************



            INDONESIA NATIONAL PLAN OF ACTION

   FOLLOW-UP OF THE FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN

              BEIJING, 4-15 SEPTEMBER 1995



Office of the State Minister for the Role of Women

Republic of Indonesia

Medan Merdeka Barat 15

Jakarta 10110

INDONESIA



Contents

  I. Introduction

 II. Indonesia's vision towards Beijing Platform for Action

III. Indonesia's main concepts

 IV. National Plan of Action

  V. Implementation strategy

 VI. Concluding remarks



INTRODUCTION



     The results of Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women in

1995 are not completely alien to the Republic of Indonesia.



     Indonesia's national programmes for the enhancement of the

role of women are argued to have been in line with the Beijing

Declaration and Platform for Action. The national programmes

consisting of five major priorities and encompassing thirty

activities are already in full conformity with the twelve

critical areas of concern to be followed up by state members

countries. For Indonesia, The Women and Armed Conflict is not

thoroughly significant generally because for the past 3 decades

Indonesia is already in peaceful and stable condition. Hence,

in keeping with the Beijing Platform for Action Indonesia does

not need to formulate new programmes, instead it has to more

improve, strengthen and promote the existing programmes, both

for the long term, short term and annual term.



     Within the framework of designing national plan of action

in compliance with the Beijing Platform for Action, Indonesia

has outlined concrete steps, namely in how to strengthen the

institution and sub-national mechanisms for the advancement of

women. These are realized through the issuance of Presidential

Instruction Number S/1995 concerning the increase of every

provincial budget for women in development programmes. The

strengthening of the mechanism is also exercised through the

revision and improvement of existing legislative acts which are

discriminate to the advancement of women; the increase of

research and studies through Women's Studies Centres; the

dissemination and socialization of the translated version of

the Beijing World Conference: the execution of advocacy to

relevant heads of ministerial departments; the development of

communication fora with heads of community organizations, in

particular women's organizations, religious organizations as

well as heads of mass media (both printed and electronic).



     Accordingly, referring to the twenty-five-year second long

term national development plan and the 1993 Broad Guidelines of

State Policy, Indonesia reformulated The National Plan of

Action into seven priorities.



     The reformulation of the national plan of action into 7

priorities of development is in complementary with the

statement adopted by the Beijing Declaration and strategic

objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action.



     The above mentioned seven priorities are namely in the

fields of economy, people's welfare, education and culture,

religion, science and technology, law, politic, state

apparatus, information, communication and mass media, defense

and security.



     Furthermore, to conform with the request of the General

Assembly on its 50th anniversary in 1995, Indonesia has

prepared its national report, where the seven priorities have

been converted into the twelve critical areas of concern which

are to be followed up by each of member state.



INDONESIA'S VISION TOWARDS BEIJING PLATFORM FOR ACTION



     Policies and efforts to elevate the status and role of

women as an integral part of national development have been

executed since The 1978 Broad Guidelines of the State Policy,

in the Third Development Cabinet. The policies and efforts have

been revised in line with the fast changing of development and

global framework nationally and internationally. The changes of

the policies can be observed respectively in the 1983, 1988 and

1993 Broad Guidelines of State Policies together with the Fifth

and Sixth Five Year Development Plans.



     If we carefully scrutinize the contents of the Beijing

Declaration and Platform for Action with its twelve critical

areas of concern, it is argued to have been in conformity with

the policies on the advancement of the status and role of women 

in the  1993 Broad Guidelines of State Policies together with

the Fifth and Sixth Five Year Development Plan. The policies

are later translated into thirty programmes and projects of the

enhancement of the role of women.



     Hence, to follow up the Beijing Declaration and Platform

for Action, Indonesia considers it unnecessary to create new

programmes. What is considered the most important within this

context is the strengthening and reinforcing attempts to

develop the policies, programmes and projects on the

enhancement of the role of women as appropriate as possible

with the adopted Beijing Platform for Action.



     In view of the fact that the coverage of the programmes,

projects and activities on the improvement of the status and

role of women required to be revised and developed are quite

comprehensive, some programme priorities are set up to

anticipate the emerging women's issues until the year 2000, in

compliance with implementation of the Nairobi Forward Looking

Strategies for the Advancement of Women toward the Year 2000.



     For the Fifth and sixth Five Year Development Plans, the

Office of the State Minister for the Role of Women has

undertaken concrete steps to more elevate the status and role

of women through five priorities as follows:



1. The increased quality of women as human resources in

development



2. The increased quality of the role and protection of female

workers



3. The increased quality of the multi-functional roles of men

and women in the family and community



4. The development of the socio-cultural environment conducive

to the advancement of women



5. The development of institutional mechanism for the

advancement of women and women's organizations



     To realize these effectively and efficiently, the Office

has determined the following primary areas:



1. Education



2. Non-Degree Course/Education



3. The improvement of the health and nutritional status of

women



4. The increase of the quality and productivity of female

workers



5. The protection of female workers



6. The increase quality of the role of women as nurtures of

their children and families as well as solvers of

socio-economic problems in society and international level





7. The development of socio-cultural environment conductive to

the advancement of women



8. The increase of research and studies on the advancement of

women, institutional mechanism as well as women's organizations

supportive to the enhancement of the status and role of women



     The goals of the policies on the promotion of the status

and role of women are translated into thirty programmes,

projects and activities of the improvement of women. Apart from

this, the Office has endeavoured to incorporate the majority of

the programmes into sectoral programmes in line ministries.



     In order to carry out these programme effectively, the

Office has prepared new supporting activities such as Profile

on the Status and Role of Women in National and Regional

Levels, Management Information System on the Advancement of

Women, Gender Development Index, Gender Empowerment Measures

and the Outlook of Harmonious Gender Partnership between Men

and Women.



     In concurrent with the national policies on the

advancement of women and as the concretization of the

cooperation between the Government and the community on the

development process in the national level, a communication

forum is held annually between the State Minister for the Role

of Women with Community Organizations, in particular with

women's organisations, Family Welfare Movement, community self

reliance institutions and professional organisations. In

regional levels, a similar means of communication has also been

conducted between the Vice Governors as IICADS of the

Management Team for the Advancement of Women, with women's

organisations, self-reliance community institutions and

professional organisations.



III. INDONESIA'S MAIN CONCEPTS



     The 1993 Broad Guidelines of the State Policy has outlined

the Outlook of Harmonious Gender Partnership between Men and

Women as strategy to increase attempts to more augment the

status and role of women in all spheres of life and

development. This strategy is persevered as a concept to attain

full participation of women as equal partners of men both as

agents and beneficiaries in development, in the family and

community.



     By enacting this strategy, all sorts of attempts will be

carried out to more improve and protect women's human rights at

all fields, from the beginning of their lives until their aging

days, thus they will have equal status and role with men.



     However, there is a persistent discrepancy in reality. The

realization of equal status and role of women with men in

development is far from expectation and is a concern for all of

us. Various efforts are performed to more promote the status

and role of women namely the enhancement of the role of women

in the family, their mastery in science and technology, their

increased role in decision making process, the development of

socio-cultural environment supportive to the improvement of

women's self-esteem and dignity, the augmentation of parent's

awareness in the upbringing and educating of their children, in

particular their daughters, the elevation of their role in

environmental management, and the increased protection for

female workers.



     The disparity between the status and role of men and women

has become the concern of the world wide as this was also

reflected in the twelve critical areas of concern in the

Beijing Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on

Women in 1995. The Platform for Action has given direction to

member-states to fulfill equality between and women in their

respective country.



     In order to more strengthen, develop and expand policies,

programmes and projects of the enhancement of the role of women

in development in Indonesia alongside with the Beijing Platform

for Action. Indonesia also develops programmes to advance the

status, capabilities, self-reliance and mental endurance of

women. By administering the strategy, it is hoped that men's

and women's potentials will be more utilised effectively.



     Besides employing women's specific programmes aimed at

closing the disparities between men and women, at present, the

Office is developing a gender and development approach in their

policies and programme implementation. By executing this

approach, it is expected that the equality between men and

women would be accomplished shortly. Furthermore, the gender

and development approach is dispersed to all of relevant line

ministries and non-governmental agencies. By so doing, the

impacts of the programmes would be felt broadly, instead of to

women specifically.



     In order to strengthen the position of Indonesian women in

international fora, the Indonesia women were appointed as

members of various international organisations namely CEDAW,

INSTRAW, UNIFEM and CSW. An Indonesian representative has also

held key position as President of the International Council on

Women from the period of 1994-1997.



IV. THE NATIONAL PLAN OF ACTION



     Several existing action plans on the advancement of the

role of women in Indonesia in view of the Beijing Platform for

Action are as follows:



1. WOMEN AND POVERTY     

     a. Specific programmes to alleviate poverty faced by women

        are as follows:

          1) Integrated Programme on the enhancement of the

             Role of Women towards Healthy and Prosperous

             Family.

          2) Income generation activities programme performed

             through:     

               a) Joint Bussiness Group (KUB)

               b) Join Learning Group (KBU)



     b. General programmes which integrate aspirations, needs

        and interest of women in eradicating poverty is called

        a programme for backward village (Backward Village

        Programme).



     The two programmes are carried out by Motivating Team of

Family welfare Movement, a movement stemmed from grass root

level of the community, in which women are the main motivators.

At present, these are 225.000 Joint Learning Groups. The Team

was awarded Nouma Prize from the UNESCO for the successful

implementation of the programmes.

These programmes nonetheless still need to be uplifted both in

terms of the quantitatif and qualitatively.



     At present, a self-reliant integrated programme on the

enhancement of the role of women funded by the community is

being developed whilst the main task of the Government among

others is to administer guidance and direction, and to equip

infrastructure facilities.

The Backward Village programme, which is currently operated in

21.000 poor villages, funded by the government (each village

receive U$ 10.000) is to be further promoted and developed

ranging from programme formulation, activity planning, and

monitoring and evaluation of its implementation. This means

that the aspirations, needs and interest of the village women

would be enveloped in the Backward Village Programme.



2. EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF WOMEN



     In order to cope with poor the quality of the role of

women in development attributed to their low level of

education, their managerial skills and leadership capacities,

on-going programmes being executed consist of :



a. Eradication of 3 illiteracies (illiteracy in latin

alphabets, illiteracy in numbers and illiteracy in command of

Indonesian language). It is expected that by the year 2000, two

and a half million of Indonesian women aged between 14 - 49

years have combatted the three illiteracies.



b. Package A of the Learning Group (similar to primary level)

and Package B (similar to secondary level) in particular for

women workers are being boosted in villages and factories.



c. The continued monitoring and evaluation of the

Nine-Year-Compulsory Education, especially for school aged

children (this programme was launched in 1994).



d. The development of various programmes to more improve and

promote women are implemented through trainings and advocacies.

The programmes specially being developed continuously are aimed

at inducing women's interest in science and technology.



Withing this framework, several efforts to more accelerate the

role of women quantitatively and qualitatively are performed

through the following sectors:



     1. Managerial and leadership trainings

     2. To encourage women to pay more attention and to take

        interest in and the mastering of science and technology

        through advocacies and dissemination of information to

        parents and children.

     3. The provision of facilities of applied technologies to

        society, in particular to women.



c. Advocacies to endow women who work in public and private

sectors, more opportunities to attend professional job

trainings at each level and echelon.



3. WOMEN AND HEALTH



     In the field of health development, women act as agents

and beneficiaries of development. Under the Motivating Team of

the Family Welfare Movement Village women assemble and

participate actively in facilitating health services and

improving health status of the community. The Government in

this case, provides physical facilities such as Community

Health Centres (Puskesmas) in more than 14.000 sub districts

and Integrated Health Posts (Posyandu) in more than 67.000

villages throughout Indonesia.



     To acknowledge its achievements in increasing the health

status of the community as well as in decreasing the infant

mortality rate, the Family welfare Movement was awarded two

prizes namely The Sasakawa Award from UNESCO and Mauritz Pate

Award from UNICEF.



     In 1996, Indonesia has held National Immunization

Programme for infants and underfives throughout Indonesia. This

Programme has exceeded the target designated.



     In line with the Beijing Platform for Action, Indonesia

has taken further innovating steps to more extend the equipment

of health services to the community and advance the role of

women as subjects of health development.



1. To increase endeavours to reduce maternal mortality rate

(MMR) through the launching of a programme called "Care/Love

for Mothers" by H.E. The President of Indonesia as a national

movement. The designated target is 225/100.000 live births in

1998 from 392/100.000 whilst the long term target is 80/100.000

live births in 2018.



2. To more develop the implementation of exclusive

breastfeeding programme and enhance "Hospital Cares/Loves (for)

Babies with rooming in services in each municipality.



3. To improve health services facilities and the status of the

community through the promotion of the quantity and quality of

community Health Centres (Pukesmans) and Integrated Health

Posts (Posyandu) in each village. Apart from these, Village

Delivery clinics (Polindes) or clinics for giving birth to poor

women in villages were also established most significantly in

the remotest areas. To give recognition to the outstanding

caretakers of the programmes, the government has contributed

awards to doctors and paramedics from the Community Health

Centres and the Integrated Health Posts.



4. To accelerate the provision of village midwives in 67

thousand villages/subdistricts.



5. To develop gender training and advocacies to prevent

HIV/AIDS and to increase protection for women against sexual

violence and protection of their reproductive functions.



6. To more enhance the role of Women's Studies Centres in

research and studies in the health of women and to accelerate

their roles in community dedication programmes.



7. To conduct various communication fora with heads of

hospitals and heads of professional health organisations in the

views to multiply the number of women decision makers in policy

making along with women in decision makers in health

development.



The National Plan of Action in the field of health is carried

out through integrated cooperation amongst the Department of

Health. The Office of the State Minister for the

Population/National Family Planning Coordinating Board, the

Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Information and

women Studies Centres, which are all coordinated by the Office

of the State Minister for the role of Women.



4. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN



     For the past decade the shift from agricultural

development to industrial development has contributed to the

increasing number of violence against women namely rape and

sexual harassment. Besides this, it was also triggered by the

transmission of over populous areas to less populous industrial

areas.



     The uncontrollable change of life style and the increased

economic necessities of the community has apparently caused

emerging causes of violence against women, rape and sexual

harassment both quantitavely and qualitatively less severe

punishment is also argued to have been another cause.



     In conformity with the Beijing Platform for Action,

Indonesia has managed to design efforts to prevent such act of

violence against women, rape and sexual harassment, and to

increase protection and to contrive efforts to infer sever

punishment to perpetrators of the violence against women.



     Among several concrete steps to increase the awareness on

violence against women are as follows:



1) to encourage the organization of seminars and workshops on

violence against women, rape and sexual harassment, both within

the national and regional levels operated by relevant

government agencies, women's organisations and self- reliant

community institutions.



2) To employ advocacies to Supreme-Court, Department of

Justice, Law upholders and The State Police to suggest for more

severe punishment to perpetrators of the violence against women

and rape.



3) To improve a number of legislative acts which are

discriminative to the advancement of women, especially in the

Penal Law articles 280-295.



4) To develop and strengthen functions of Legal Consultation

Agency for women and children, and to increase services and

legal consultation primarily to low-level income

groups/families.



5) To promote the socialization of Law No. 7/1984 on the

Ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms

of Discrimination Against Women all over Indonesia so as to

reach all levels of society.



6) Socialization and dissemination of information on

"Harmonious Gender Partnership" between men and women in

national and regional levels.



7) To enhance the role of Women Studies Centres to conduct

research and studies on issues of violence against women, rape

and sexual harassment.



     These activities are carried out in cooperation with the

department of Justice, the Supreme court, the law upholders,

State Police, academics, experts and professional organizations

concerning with law, women's organisations and self-reliant

community institutions, which are all coordinated by the State

Ministry for the Role of Women.



5. WOMEN AND ARMED CONFLICT



     For the past three decades, the state of the art of the

Republic of Indonesia is considered to be stable and under

control. Free and active political foreign affairs founded on

the 1945 constitution, has positioned Indonesia as one of the

respected developing countries.



     Under the leadership of the present President of the

Republic of Indonesia Soeharto, Indonesia has succeeded in

creating a global partnership reflected in south-south

cooperation and North-South cooperation, as well as a Non

Aligned Movement, Asia-Pacific and ASEAN cooperation. Peaceful

and friendly conditions based on principles of mutual respect,

mutual care, and mutual assistance among the developing

countries in the world, has been created and realized,

including in Indonesia. This is possible, because Indonesia is

based on mutual consentions to reach mutual agreement.



     Within the framework of Women and the Armed Conflict,

Indonesia does not feel it necessary to follow it up the with

concrete steps. This doesn't signify that Indonesia is ignorant

of issues on the role of women in the defense and security.



     In the national policies as stipulated in the Broad

Guidelines of the State Policy, the participation of women in

the total defense and security system is more broadened,

including women's knowledge on socio-cultural values, unity and

integrity of the nation.



     Within this framework, the national plan of action is

geared toward:



1. Increase of the quantity and quality of Women Corps of the

Armed forces (the Navy, the Airforce, the Army and the State

Police)



2. To promote the participation of women in education and

training in Students Regiments.



3. To increase trainings on defense and security for women.



4. To develop the participation of women in creating peaceful

condition in daily lives.





6. WOMEN AND THE ECONOMY



     In the sixth Five Year Development Plan (1993-1998), the

main focus of the national development is economic development

inherent with the development of the quality of human

resources.



     In line with the Beijing Platform for Action, the

Government of Indonesia has increased the capabilities and

professionalism of women in work including in entrepreneurship,

and leadership capabilities. The Government also endeavours to

create a conducive climate which enables women to manage their

bussiness independently and to extend the access of women in

obtaining credits/capitals, market information, production and

marketing network.



     To eradicate the role and participation disparity between

men and women in all economic activities such as in areas of

renumeration, work and business opportunities. Indonesia has

also held various trainings ins skill improvement, management

and entrepreneurship trainings, as well as the formation of

women Cooperatives Groups as the means to improve the economy

of society.



7. WOMEN IN POWER AND DECISION MAKING



     At present, the opportunities and chances of women to hold

structural and functional positions in political

suprastructures and infrastructures have been widely opened.

Although women's role in decision making process has improved

significantly, however in terms of the quality, it is still

under proportion compared to those of men. The disparity is

still wide considering women make up more than half of the

whole Indonesia population or about 50.3 percent in all and

about 51.4 percent participated in 1992 General Election.



     In conformity with the Beijing Platform for Action, the

quantity and quality of women, in particular in political

infrastructures and suprastructures have been increased

substantially, so that their access to key position levels

would be more opened.



     Several national plans of action regarding this are as

follows:



1. To encompass aspirations, needs and interest of men and

women in each legislative act.



2. To administer advocacies o heads of governmental

organisations, private agencies, socio-political organisations

and community organisations to foster them to grant more

opportunities to women holding key positions. Furthermore, they

are also equipped with the Outlook of Harmonious Gender

Partnership between Men and Women at all levels of development

in order to eradicated stereotyped images of women both un the

family and development.



3. To develop caderisation system both in the political and

supra structures.



4. To strengthen and enhance the education, leadership and

management trainings for women among others through Leadership

Training for women Programme (LWK) and Leadership Training for

women Trainers (LPKW) and Gender analysis Training for

programme planners in Central and Regional levels.



5. To strengthen coordination mechanism among governmental

agencies, women's studies Centres, private sectors, mass media

communication organisations, especially women's organisations

and self-reliant community institutions.





8. INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISM FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN



     As the fulfilment of the commitment of the Indonesia

nation to more advance the status and role of women in 1978, a

special Chapter on the Role of Women in Nation Building was

incorporated as an integral part of the national development in

the Broad guidelines of State Policy.



     To actualize the commitment, withing the highest level was

issued recently a Presidential Decree Number 93/M/1993 and

Number 41/1993 on the Establishment of Institutional Mechanism

of the State Ministry for the Role of Women. The main functions

of the State Minister are to assist the President as the

Mandatory in formulating polities, coordinating programmes,

granting advocacies, monitoring and evaluation of the programme

implementation on the advancement of the status and role of

women in nation building.



     Based on the Presidential Instruction Number 5/1995,

within the subnational or regional levels, the respective vice

governors from 27 provinces and Regional Secretaries in 315

municipalities/regencies were appointed as Heads of Management

team for the Advancement of Women at Level I and II Regions.



     Later on, the instruction was intensified with the

issuance of the Decree of the Minister of Home Affairs Number

17/1996, which all of the heads of sub-districts from 14.000

sub-districts and heads of villages from 67.000 villages were

designated as the extender hands of the Minister of State for

the Role of women, aside from executing their main tasks.



     In carrying out their tasks, the Heads of Management Team

for the Advancement of women Level I and II Regions are

assisted by several officials in their respective regions,

together with heads of Women's Studies Centre from the local

universities.



     To implement the policies on the enhancement of the role

of women in cross-sectoral and cross-discipline manner, the

Office of the State Minister for the Role of women and the

Management Team at Level I and Level II Regions formed several

Working Groups dealing with selected issues. The membership of

these groups consist of representatives of relevant

departmental organisations, academics, heads of community

organisations, in particular women's organisations.



     With reference to the Beijing Platform for Action,

Indonesia has taken concrete steps to more strengthen the

institutional functions and national mechanism which support

the efforts to elevate the status and role of women in

development in the following areas:



1. To rearrange and solidify the organizational capacities and

institutional orders and coordination mechanism for the

management of the advancement of women's programmes in national

and regional levels. This is carried out among others through

the convene of national workshop of the State Minister for the

Role of Women with Heads of Management Team for the Advancement

of Women, regional coordination meeting on the advancement of

women in Level I and II Regions.



2. To elevate and develop cooperation among sectors and

governmental organisation, State Ministry for the Role of women

with Heads of Management Team for the Advancement of Women in

regional levels, community organisations including professional

organisations, religious organisations and women's

organisations (for communication, consultation and advocates)



3. To increase the provision of budget at the central and

regional levels through the integration of the planning of the

advancement of women's programmes initiating from regional

coordination meeting to national coordination meeting at the

National Development Planning Agency.



4. To develop supervisory activities, monitoring and evaluation

of the implementation of the programmes on the advancement of

women's role periodically.



5. To administer advocacies toward officials at sectoral

department in national and regional levels to integrate gender

dissemination in the formulation of various legislative acts

along side with the formulation of programme planning and

government projects.



6. To conduct gender analysis training, specially for planner,

member of women's studies Centres, and other community

organisations and women's organisations.



7. To incite the compilation of the Profile of Status and Role

of women at national, provincial and regencial levels.



8. To urge the Central Bureau of Statistics and Women's Studies

Centres to publish gendered statistics data.





9. WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS



     Attempts to promote the rights and obligations and

protection of women's human rights have basically been found in

the 1945 constitution, the Broad Guidelines of State Policy and

Law No. 7 on the Ratification of the Convention on the

Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.



     The violation of women's human rights is also concern of a

newly established National Commission on Human Rights and Legal

Aid Agencies in Indonesia.



     However, in reality, the implementation of human rights

for women is still below expectation. Both preventive efforts

implemented through dissemination of information, advocacies

and repressive efforts carried out through among other

suggestion to render more severe punishment to perpetrators of

violence against women and women's human rights are being

performed.



     Under the Beijing Platform for Action, Indonesia has

undertaken innovative steps to more enhance the protection of

women's human rights among others through the following areas:



1. To rearrange and revise certain national legislative acts

supportive to implementation of women's human rights



2. To elevate and broaden information activities, advocacies

though printed and electronic media and other mass media in

order to more promote the awareness of the community, as well

as the socialization of Law No. 7/1984 on the Ratification of

the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination Against Women.



3. To develop the Outlook of Harmonious Gender Partnership

between men and women to accelerate the objectives of the

increased protection of women's human rights



4. To grant advocacies and to urge organization of various

kinds of seminars, workshops and other structured organisations

held by various community organisations and academics, as well

as self-reliant community institutions. The results of which

could be employed as inputs for the formulation of government

policies, as one of the concrete steps to uplift the protection

of women's human rights.



5. To encouraged activities of legal aid agencies and to

constitute Crisis Centres in main cities in Indonesia



6. To socialize and disseminate information on the Outlook of

Harmonious Gender Partnership among state apparatus, academics,

and community organisations in particular women's organisations

at national and regional levels.



7. To advocate judges at the Supreme Court, Law upholders, the

Department of Justice, the State Police and Heads of

professional organisations concerned with law to yield more

severe punishment to perpetrators of violence against women.



10. WOMEN AND THE MASS MEDIA



     The status and role of women in development of

information, communications and mass media still need to be

augmented in terms of quantity and quality. Currently, women

holding key positions and decision making levels in the

development on the mass media still underrepresented.



In the printed and electronic media, in particular

advertisement, there are quite a number of scenes which exploit

women's self-esteem and dignity.



     With regards to Beijing Platform for Action, several

concrete steps in areas of the mass media are carried out as

follows:



1. To organize communication fora regularly with officials of

the department of Information, Association of Indonesia

reporters, Association of Indonesian Advertisement, Association

of Indonesian Film Stars and Association of Production Houses.



2. To intensify information activities and advocacies to

transform the image of the society regrading the status and

role of women and to instigate the society to more respect

women's nature, dignity and self-esteem.

Information and advocacies to community on the Outlook of

Harmonious gender Partnership between Men and Women.



3. To advocate more opportunities for women to enroll in job

trainings at each level of echelon in order to increase the

role of women as decision makers in the development of the mass

media.



4. To reinforce the status of Censorship Institutions to

alleviate stereotyped imagines of women and exploitation of

women and young girls in the mass media



5. To disseminate information and advocacies for women so as to

reassure their self-reliance in encountering changes and in

enabling them to screen negative impacts of the globatisation

process and in shielding themselves and their families with

religious beliefs and cultural values.



6. To develop gender analysis training for mass media managers.



11. WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT



     The sustainable national development has not utterly

involved women in the management of the natural resources and

conservation of the environment. The number of women as key

decision makers in areas of the utilisation of the natural

resources and environmental conservation as well as pollution

management is still limited.



     Although several women's organisations and self-reliant

community institutions have already assisted the Government in

the campaigns of the preservation of environment and poverty

alleviation programmes, women's participation, in terms of the

quantity and quality needs to be more expanded.



     Within the framework of the Beijing Platform for Action,

Indonesia has urged to more intensify the quantity and quality

of the participation of women in the utilization of the natural

resources, poverty alleviation and the environmental

conservation through:



1. The enhancement of opportunities for women to develop

education and training in the management of environment



2. The extension of advocacies and information on the Outlook

of Harmonious Gender Partnership between men and women in the

management of the natural resources and environmental

conservation



3. The inclusion of gender and environmental perspectives in

programme planning of the sustainable development



4. The development of research and studies on the participation

of women in the natural resources management and its

conservation



12. THE GIRL-CHILD



     In the national development, issues of the girl-child is

engulfed under a programme called child and Youth Development,

which its implementation is under the coordination of the State

Ministry for People's Welfare, the State Ministry for Youth and

Sport and the State Ministry for the Role of Women.



     With regard to the Beijing Platform for Action, efforts to

administer the girl-child issues should be more intensified and

elevated. Accordingly, Indonesia has undertaken the following

concepts:



1. To expand the outreach of the targets of the socialisation

and dissemination of Law No. 7/1984 on the Ratification of the

convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination

Against Women



2. To booster advocacies and dissemination of information on

harmonious gender partnership between men and women, in

particular to parents to avoid girls being discriminated

against boys as early as possible



3. To foster the implementation of a Nine-Year-Compulsory

Education System



4. To advocate the increase of the protection of the

child-labour, particularly girl-child labour



5. To recommend for more sever punishment to perpetrators of

violence against girl-child and sexual harassement





V. IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY



     The attempts to improve the status and role of women in

national development have shown significant progress. However,

in reality, there are still a number of obstacle faced by women

internally and externally which should be resolved in the long

run. The disparity persists although the State Ideology,

Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution and the Broad Guidelines of

State Policy have guaranteed equal status, rights and role

between men and women in all spheres of development. Women are

still subjugated to men at every aspect.



     To eliminate the discrepancy as well as to anticipate the

goals of the advancement of the status and role of women in all

fields of life, the Office of the State Minister for the Role

of Women has developed the Outlook of Harmonious Gender

Partnership between Men and Women.



     For the past two years, the Office has conducted various

efforts to disperse this strategy through mass media both

printed and electronic and other means. The implementation of

this strategy is reflected in the attitudes and behaviours of

men toward women who pay them mutual respect, mutual support,

mutual cooperation inter-exchangeably in the family, community

and development.



     This means that women and men work side by side

harmoniously in all areas. This also confirms the equal status

between men and women in development. Thus, by employing this

strategy, the emerging problems encountered in the execution of

development would be shared equally-hence the distribution of

development activities is fairer to both of them. This also

means that the potentials of both sides would be optimized.



     In this condition, women would be able to make use of

their rights substantially and actualize themselves as proven

decision makes ans programme planners. The strategy, therefore

should be used as a tool to accomplish the goals of the

enhancement of the role of women in development.



VI. CONCLUDING REMARKS



     With regards to the Beijing Platform for Action

emcompasing the twelve critical areas of concern, Indonesia has

managed to follow it up with its specified national plan of

action which has been illustrated in the prerequisite of this

chapter.



     By exercising the Outlook of Harmonious Gender Partnership

Men and Women in Development in cross-sectoral cooperation

manner, it is argued that the adopted Beijing Declaration and

Platform for Action has been implemented accordingly in

Indonesia.